INTERVIEW ON LITHUANIA'S OSCE CHAIRMANSHIP (Bulgarian National Radio, 22 January 2011)
BNR interview with Director of the OSCE Chairmanship Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Rytis Paulauskas. To listen to the interview please click here. Following is the complete transcript of the interview.
BNR: So, first of all, let’s say that today Belarus President Mr Lukashenko has been sworn in a fourth term as Belarus President and, concerning this issue, the Belarusian Government have released from prison some people after the clashes in December, but they are still holding some of the country’s most prominent opposition activists, journalists as well as four candidates following the elections. What is your position concerning Belarus’ OSCE democratic commitments?PAULAUSKAS: Well, thank you very much for this question. As you know, Lithuania is chairing the OSCE for 2011, as the Minister A.Ažubalis is the Chairman-in-Office for the organization. Well, I would be really probably sure repeating the position of the Minister and also there have been number of institutions within the OSCE, for example the OSCE’s Representative on Freedom of the Media Ms. Dunja Mijatovic, who called for an end of the attacks on independent media in Belarus, for an immediate release of imprisoned journalists, and she also expressed a deep concern about the violence, intimidation, arrests and prosecution of journalists. That was in her statement and letters to the Minster Martynov and, of course, the Lithuanian Chairmanship strongly agrees with that. I think the Minister will have agreed to raise his position a number of times on this issue and, well, as the Chairman-in-Office, Lithuania is committed to protect the OSCE-Copenhagen principles regarding elections and other commitments, and those commitments have been agreed by all in 1990. Well, recently, we had in Astana meeting, just, well, couple of months ago in December all the participating States at the head of state level have re-confirmed their commitments and OSCE commitments and, again, not only the elections, but many other commitments, which the countries have to respect. Well, there are number of institutions, which continue the work, one of those, like Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, they stand for preservation of those commitments and we definitely are supportive. This was stated by the Minister when he was in Vienna on January 13th - strong commitment of the Lithuanian Chairmanship to support the institutions, to support the principles of the OSCE, not only as the chair, but also as the country, which right now also upholds the chairmanship, so we apply it to ourselves as well.
BNR: Mr.Paulauskas, when we talk about elections’ commitments and standards how can we assess the last presidential elections in Belarus? You know, there is a proverb that says that it is not important for who you’re voting for, the most import is who counts ballots. So what do you think about the elections’ results?
PAULAUSKAS: I will joke about this proverb, I think it’s important whom you vote for in all the democratic societies and to have your own strong opinion about whom you want to be elected, and, of course, the procedures are really important. So, from the procedural purpose, technical aspect, everyone has heard and there have been number of … At times I myself follow closely statement of the OSCE parliamentary and OSCE ODIHR observation mission joint statement concerning the elections of Belarus. To begin with, we fully supported all that and regretted that the principles have not been met in the recent elections in Belarus, so I think it’s the assessment which was given by the institution, credible international institution, and I think that has significant value in sort of objective assessment of the situation on December 19th.
BNR: Lithuania is not only Chairperson-in-Office right now at the OSCE, but it’s also a valuable European Union member state. And from this perspective, do you think Europe and the international community in general should adopt more tough policy with sanctions for the Government of Belarus, or should it leave the door open for dialogue, because, after all, this is a sovereign country and what the European Union should do, that is to recognize the presidential mandate of Lukashenko or not?
PAULAUSKAS: They will, this is, probably, goes out of my competence as the Director of the OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, so I would rather ask you maybe to address our other colleagues concerning those issues. I just want to sort of underline the specificity of the OSCE, as I think that’s what we are right now doing within sort of my department of my competence; of course, within the OSCE we are for the promotion of the dialogue among 56, Belorussia is the one, one of the…
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